3 Nations Condemn Libya in Bomb Suspect Impasse

The United States, Britain and France yesterday condemned Libya's
continued refusal to surrender the intelligence agents accused of
bombing Pan American Flight 103 and threatened new efforts to compel
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to cooperate in bringing the suspects to
justice.

The three governments acted on the first anniversary of their demand
that Libya give up the agents charged with the 1988 Pan Am explosion
over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the 1989 bombing of a French UTA jetliner
over Niger.

However, while saying they would intensify efforts to tighten the
economic sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council against Libya
last March, the three did not specify what new penalties they might seek
or when they plan to ask the council for action.

U.S. officials said privately the three allies may seek an embargo on
Libyan oil exports, the North African nation's most important foreign
exchange earner. But previous attempts to get a majority of the
15-member council to support an oil embargo were unsuccessful.

A total of 270 people -- 259 on board and 11 on the ground -- were
killed when the Pan Am plane blew up on Dec. 21, 1988, en route from
London to New York. The UTA explosion resulted in 171 deaths.

Following extensive investigation, the United States and Britain
charged last year that the Pan Am bombing was committed by two Libyan
intelligence officials, Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa
Fhimah. Last Jan. 21, the Security Council approved a resolution calling
on Libya to give a "full and effective" response to U.S. and British
demands for custody of the two suspects. It also called on Libya to
cooperate with a French investigation into the UTA bombing.

When Libya failed to respond, the council adopted a resolution March
27 imposing sanctions that included cutting off air links with Libya,
denying the Libyans new aircraft and spare parts and maintenance for
existing planes and prohibiting all military aid or training.

However, only 10 countries voted for the resolution, one more than
the nine required for passage. The narrow margin reflected the concern
of many Third World countries, particularly Arab states, that there had
been insufficient negotiation and that the three Western powers were
unwilling to accept such compromise proposals as having the suspects
tried by an international tribunal.

The Arab countries, led by Libya's neighbor, Egypt, since have made
several attempts to find a new compromise formula or to convince Gadhafi
to comply. Each time, the Libyans have hinted at cooperation, only to
back away.

"The Libyan government continues to attempt to escape its
international obligations through equivocation and delay," White House
press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said in the statement released in
Kennebunkport, Maine. London and Paris issued similar statements.